ocalities is a common feature of all
states. It seems natural to us now. But we have seen what long and hard
fighting was required before it could take, in Athens and Rome, the
place of the old organization by blood kinship.

In the second place, the state created a public power of coercion that
did no longer coincide with the old self-organized and armed population.
This special power of coercion is necessary, because a self-organized
army of the people has become impossible since the division of society
into classes took place. For the slaves belonged also to society. The
90,000 citizens of Athens formed only a privileged class compared to the
365,000 slaves. The popular army of the Athenian democracy was an
aristocratic public power designed to keep the slaves down. But we have
seen that a police force became also necessary to maintain order among
the citizens. This public power of coercion exists in every state. It is
not composed of armed men alone, but has also such objects as prisons
and correction houses attached to it, that were unknown to gentilism. It
may be very small, almost infinitesimal, in societies with feebly
developed class antagonisms and in out of the way places, as was once
the case in certain regions of the United States. But it increases in
the same ratio in which the class antagonisms become more pronounced,
and in which neighboring states become larger and more populous. A
conspicuous example is modern Europe, where the class struggles and wars
of conquest have nursed the public power to such a size that it
threatens to swallow the whole society and the state itself.

In order to maintain this public power, contributions of the citizens
become necessary--the taxes. These were absolutely unknown in gentile
society. But to-day we get our full measure of them. As civilization
makes further progress, these taxes are no longer sufficient to cover
public expenses. The state makes drafts on the future, contracts loans,
public debts. Old Europe can tell a story of them.

In possession of the public power and of the right of taxation, the
officials in their capacity as state organs are now exalted above
society. The free and voluntary respect that was accorded to the organs
of gentilism does not satisfy them any more, even if they might have it.
Representatives of a power that is divorced from society, they must
enforce respect by exceptional laws that render them specially sacred
and inviolable.[40]